First hitting the scene in the late ’80s, Wesley Stace, then professionally known as the singer-songwriter John Wesley Harding, scored some early musical success, especially on the college radio airwaves with songs like “The Devil in Me,” “The Person You Are,” and an unlikely cover of Madonna’s “Like a Prayer.” More than 20 albums and collections later, he tends a multi-faceted career as a novelist, singer-songwriter, professor, book reviewer and variety show host.

Now, with the May 18, 2018 release of Greatest Other People’s Hits on CD and Digital from Omnivore Recordings, Stace adds singer of greatest other people’s hits to this long list of accomplishments! John Wesley Harding has put together a fantastic release of songs by artists as varied as Bruce Springsteen, Madonna, Serge Gainsbourg, George Harrison, Roky Erickson, and Pete Seeger, among others.

For Record Store Day (April 21), a special 10-track version, featuring collaborations with the Minus Five, Fastball, Eric Bazilian, the Universal Thump, and Bruce Springsteen, was released on vinyl. Expanded to 17 tracks, the CD and Digital collections add material originally recorded by the Velvet Underground and Conway Twitty as well as performances with Lou Reed and Rob Wasserman, Kelly Hogan, Rick Moody, and Elizabeth Barraclough.

According to Stace, “You can write quite as good and accurate a narrative of a musical career through the covers sung as the songs written. Often, I’ve found people like the covers more, which may speak for itself, but I’ve always found it a compliment: covers are my strong suit."